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[BlackPaladin99]

My friends, energy isn't free.

I mean, it is, I guess, in a way, in that everything around you has it and you get to take it because you're better than them but it does come from somewhere. And reforming those bodies probably isn't cheap.

They mentioned a programmatic response.

This is an array. Probably.

Fighting the gorillas is foolish, and wasteful. We could likely just waste enough power that they can't regenerate anymore, but that is the way of the Saber, of the Axe, of the Hammer, to strike with brute force, to strike until by that force the enemy is laid low.

The lightning bolt only strikes once.

We are a cultivator. Sense the flow of Qi within the gorillas and find out where it's centered. Then shoot it. Failing that, shoot those gorillas in the goddamn head. Then sense the flow of Qi and determine where that -somewhere- is. Then shoot it.

Or, as a certain sect would put it, close your eyes and look.

+1

[Devastator]

-1 to any of this vision related nonsense.  If we're sensing stuff with some kinda magic sense, it means others can sense us through the same way.  Having a big giant sign over our heads as to where we are or what we are doing is dumb.

[King Zultan]

Who needs visions when we have guns!

[Powder Miner]

My friends, energy isn't free.

I mean, it is, I guess, in a way, in that everything around you has it and you get to take it because you're better than them but it does come from somewhere. And reforming those bodies probably isn't cheap.

They mentioned a programmatic response.

This is an array. Probably.

Fighting the gorillas is foolish, and wasteful. We could likely just waste enough power that they can't regenerate anymore, but that is the way of the Saber, of the Axe, of the Hammer, to strike with brute force, to strike until by that force the enemy is laid low.

The lightning bolt only strikes once.

We are a cultivator. Sense the flow of Qi within the gorillas and find out where it's centered. Then shoot it. Failing that, shoot those gorillas in the goddamn head. Then sense the flow of Qi and determine where that -somewhere- is. Then shoot it.

Or, as a certain sect would put it, close your eyes and look.

+1

Might as well feel around to see what we've got before the stakes are too tremendous.

[ragnarok97071]

-1 to any of this vision related nonsense.  If we're sensing stuff with some kinda magic sense, it means others can sense us through the same way.  Having a big giant sign over our heads as to where we are or what we are doing is dumb.

Not sure how aware you are of the genre, but sensing qi isn't like... sonar. It's just another physical sense Cultivators have. Not using it is less of a reasonable precaution and more blinding and deafening ourselves for very little or no benefit.

[Devastator]

(From my understanding of the genre, being blind or deaf is an advantage.. if you are the main character.  ;-p)

Someone's gotta be emitting for there to be something to sense.  Either us or them.  If they're emitting, they're bad and not worth worrying about, because they're too incompetent to avoid wasting power.  If we're emitting, then we're giving away our position.

No, don't see why it'd help to be shining our location out into the void, and if there's anything out there to see, we've got nothing to worry about.

[Empiricist]

My friends, energy isn't free.

I mean, it is, I guess, in a way, in that everything around you has it and you get to take it because you're better than them but it does come from somewhere. And reforming those bodies probably isn't cheap.

They mentioned a programmatic response.

This is an array. Probably.

Fighting the gorillas is foolish, and wasteful. We could likely just waste enough power that they can't regenerate anymore, but that is the way of the Saber, of the Axe, of the Hammer, to strike with brute force, to strike until by that force the enemy is laid low.

The lightning bolt only strikes once.

We are a cultivator. Sense the flow of Qi within the gorillas and find out where it's centered. Then shoot it. Failing that, shoot those gorillas in the goddamn head. Then sense the flow of Qi and determine where that -somewhere- is. Then shoot it.

Or, as a certain sect would put it, close your eyes and look.

+1

+1

Might as well feel around to see what we've got before the stakes are too tremendous.

The crowd stirs. The gorillas charge. Irrelevant. Everything about them screams "expendable". Killing them will ease the pressure but in all likelihood there will be plenty more to take their place. You need a more long term solution, and the easiest is to cut the head off the proverbial snake.

You close your eyes and focus. The noise of the crowd; the footfalls of the gorillas. The night air; the distant warmth of the lanterns. You let it all wash over you. Two fists rush forth to meet your body.

Spoiler: Roll (Alex) (click to show/hide)

F F F F F S S S S S S
                ^   
Alex is delaying her initial dodge to the last possible moment to try and maximize the odds of finding what's powering the Enforcers.

Spoiler: Roll (Alex) (click to show/hide)

T T T E S S S S S S S
                ^   
Enforcer threat is reduced due to the casualties they have taken.

You feel the rush of motion and the jolt of impact. You smell acrid smoke and as you open your eyes you witness the aftermath. At the last possible moment you had leapt up and performed a split-kick striking both gorillas square in the chest. You press the advantage, press right against their temple and pull the trigger. Metaphorically speaking, though gunshots are definitely involved. Gorilla 3 gets ventilated, six rounds tearing through their body - you figured overpenetration might be a problem and you were right - your gun punches holes through them just fine but the exit wounds are limited in scope. Seems like whatever rounds Ada uses are better suited against these chumps. Not that it matters all that much, you've got plenty of ammo and the fire rate to make use of it. Multicolored smoke pours from the last gorilla as the crowd surges and physically shoves you but you keep you cool and simply accept the motion, shifting your arm to compensate and unraveling them in eight shots.

In the time it took you to fell them you have sensed... jack fucking shit.

It's not just that you haven't found anything, you're pretty sure you can't find anything. Or at least you don't know how to. The spikes fired from your gun. Ada's bandaged arm. The frosted umbrella. You're damn near certain they all have qi in them but nothing tells you that, nothing save for your own inferences.

Is it normal for a cultivator to be unable to sense qi?

"What do you mean?"

Sensing the flow of qi or at least its presence?

"Senior... such powers only exist in fiction."

Wait what? How do you track down their power supply then? It's not like there's anyone you could ask here, someone familiar with arrays and power supplies for combat constructs, such as those of an expendable and aerial nature.

Oh wait.

You ask Ada your question.

"I think they're powered by the crowds."

That's a thing?

She nods "You can manipulate them with alchemic smoke... _{many of the local spirit beasts do it}"

If Ada's correct, then that means cutting the power is out of the question. But there has to be some lead doesn't there? If not to a powersupply then to whatever is creating them - everything's heading your way, there must be some sort of information flow, but how?

> [] Head up one of the buildings. Examine the situation from a higher vantage point, the cloth-clad figure shouldn't notice as long as you remain inside the building
> [] Engage the incoming gorillas and gun them down. Either you exhaust the supply or you see where the next batch comes from
> [] Ask Ada about yourself. You don't know things you should, but she doesn't seem to be dwelling on that, does she know something you don't?
> [] (Write in)

[Stirk]

Ask our vassal why she is so...in touch with reality. We where under the distinct impression that her kind where constantly consuming chemical concoctions while she seems remarkably sober.

Then break her grip on reality by discovering a way to detect qi. Or at least pretending to so our vassal thinks we’re cool.

Let’s see... all those things with qi in them are warm. Burning energy makes things warm. What fools we are trying to detect energy with our eyes or souls or whatever, it is clearly something you do with your hands.

Touch the Smoke Gorilla with our hands looking for warm parts. These are clearly where the qi is stored.

[BlackPaladin99]

Ask our vassal why she is so...in touch with reality. We where under the distinct impression that her kind where constantly consuming chemical concoctions while she seems remarkably sober.

Then break her grip on reality by discovering a way to detect qi. Or at least pretending to so our vassal thinks we’re cool.

Let’s see... all those things with qi in them are warm. Burning energy makes things warm. What fools we are trying to detect energy with our eyes or souls or whatever, it is clearly something you do with your hands.

Touch the Smoke Gorilla with our hands looking for warm parts. These are clearly where the qi is stored.

this, and Ask Ada About Ourselves

[King Zultan]

Ask our vassal why she is so...in touch with reality. We where under the distinct impression that her kind where constantly consuming chemical concoctions while she seems remarkably sober.

Then break her grip on reality by discovering a way to detect qi. Or at least pretending to so our vassal thinks we’re cool.

Let’s see... all those things with qi in them are warm. Burning energy makes things warm. What fools we are trying to detect energy with our eyes or souls or whatever, it is clearly something you do with your hands.

Touch the Smoke Gorilla with our hands looking for warm parts. These are clearly where the qi is stored.

this, and Ask Ada About Ourselves

+1 Maybe we should snort some of the smoke?

[ragnarok97071]

Okay, so we learn more about our setting. That's good! To a certain point at least. We'll need to find a way to fix that little problem later, if there's a form of energy there should be a technique to sense it, but the fact that it's not innate makes things more difficult.

While questions are important, this isn't really the time? Definitely remember all our concerns and need to know more about this world for later. Obviously our assumptions are off-base, it's possible that vassalage isn't even a thing here so we can't even take that as an assumption.

But right now we have a more practical problem to deal with. We're trapped in an array, or something like it, and we don't know how it works or how it can be broken.

Hm... Alchemical smoke... we do have some nifty innate traits we can make use of while we try to figure this out. Can we consume other things like we consumed the gorillas? Suck in the air and possibly emit it from our thrusters all at once to disrupt the alchemical cloud that controls the array? Either way, I suggest heading for a building for now. We need information and fighting the gorillas isn't going to earn us much but wasted energy, and we don't have time to break the laws of reality quite yet, we need a stable base first.

[Empiricist]

Ask our vassal why she is so...in touch with reality. We where under the distinct impression that her kind where constantly consuming chemical concoctions while she seems remarkably sober.

Then break her grip on reality by discovering a way to detect qi. Or at least pretending to so our vassal thinks we’re cool.

Let’s see... all those things with qi in them are warm. Burning energy makes things warm. What fools we are trying to detect energy with our eyes or souls or whatever, it is clearly something you do with your hands.

Touch the Smoke Gorilla with our hands looking for warm parts. These are clearly where the qi is stored.

this, and Ask Ada About Ourselves

+1 Maybe we should snort some of the smoke?

It only occurs to you now, but isn't this vassal of yours a little too straight-laced? From what you know of cultivators they should be high like, all the time. Just absolutely mainlining that shit. You've been half expecting the girl to shoot up and start chasing butterflies or something, but aside from that accidental discharge she's been shockingly sober. What's up with that?

"I... didn't take any?"

She hasn't been taking any of those crazy cultivation drugs?

"N-no I mean, not today... _{I use mine for meditation...}"

Okay so she's not strange, she's just boring. Got it.

Y'know, maybe it's for the best. If she was high she might doubt what she's about to see. You reach out into the crowd.

The gorillas have collapsed already, fallen apart into smoke. But the crowds, the crowds have qi. Ada said as much. It stands to reason then that you should be able to feel their qi too.

"Um... what are you doing Senior?"

Feeling for qi you explain. Emitting all that energy is going to render their source warm if not hot. So you if you just grope around a bit more you should be able to... Something brushes against your hand. Something ice cold. It's a bandaged hand, Ada's hand.

"My hand is made of qi."

You tut at her. Her hand is an emission, it's not the source. The source would be somewhere in her body and can she deny that her body is warm?

She shakes her head "Senior... qi isn't energy. It's deviance."

From what?

"The song of the world."

That sounds purely academic and- wait putting that aside for a moment, isn't she a bit too casual with this?

"H-huh?"

It's one thing for her to not be high right now, but this is like the third time you've shown you have no idea what the fuck is going on and she's kind of just accepting it?

"Oh um, I just figured you were an incarnated beast..."

An incarnated what now?

"An incarnated beast... it's a kind of spirit beast. They form when an animal recalls the cultivation of past lives."

They form? Like spontaneously? Just you're minding your own business doing squirrel things and then BAM! you're a cultivator now?

"I think so?"

Well that does sound like what happened to you. But wait, if you're recalling all this cultivation shit how come you don't remember basic things like not being able to sense qi?

"Maybe it's not conscious..? It comes from your mengtian so um... _{maybe it's instinctual?}"

Mengtian. You could've sworn you've heard that term before, but you can't remember where. It's... it's the thing your soul resides in isn't it? It's connected to your dantian through some sort tether(?), a cord of some-

"A spirit cord" Ada nods.

You were going to say "ghost cord".

"I think some old books call it that..."

Well whatever old books say you don't think the four gorillas barrelling down on you care. You ponder whether you could get high from snorting them but to be honest, you straight up ate one (or at least a good third of one) without getting high, and now that you think about it you think you might have been "smelling" through your mouth this whole time. You don't really have a nose and you don't breath either.

> [] Make a fighting retreat to one of the buildings. Catch them with a chokepoint and head up to get a view of the situation from above
> [] Eat them. Maybe the smoke will come in handy later?
> [] Drop the clerk in one of the carts and break through. Fuck it, let's see if they can deal with this
> [] (Write in)

[Stirk]

Ask what she did with her hand that was so deviant.

This fight doesn't really feel fair, give each of the gorillas a revolver and some bullets and see what they do with it. You know what? Give the clerk a revolver too. This is exactly the kind of situation we brought those things for.

[Devastator]

Send Ada back and just run through the smoke low down.  Eating them would attract too much attention and this town sucks too much to get caught up in its nonsense.  I'm sure you can outrun them and either find the source of this just by randomly running through the smoke, or by climbing a building and getting up high.

[King Zultan]

RIP AND TEAR, CONSUME THEIR FLESH AND BECOME STRONGER!